FPT will spend as much as $20 million on a Singapore
acquisition, Chief Executive Officer Bui Quang Ngoc said in an
interview today. The company, which had sales of 28.6 trillion
dong ($1.4 billion) in 2013, seeks to more than triple revenue
from overseas to $400 million by the end of 2016, co-founder
Ngoc, who took charge in July, said in Hanoi.

“Singapore is a very attractive market,” Ngoc said. “If
we can be successful in Singapore, it means we have enough
experience to do it in other countries.”

FPT joins other Vietnam companies looking for opportunities
overseas as domestic sales growth slows. Vietnam Dairy Products
Joint-Stock Co., or Vinamilk, the nation’s largest dairy
producer, plans a global expansion to more than double revenue
to $3 billion by 2017.

“The idea of them doing the work that Accenture and IBM
would normally do and doing it in other emerging markets is a
great idea,” said Michael Kokalari, head of Vietnam research at
CIMB Securities International Ltd. “It is a really good story.
A bunch of things are going right that makes it interesting. FPT
has been our top pick in Vietnam.”

Shares of FPT rose 3.5 percent to 59,000 dong at the close
of trading in Ho Chi Minh City, the highest level since November
2010. The stock has climbed 25 percent this year, outperforming
the 15 percent gain in the benchmark VN Index.

Globalization Imperative

The telecom and information technology company aims to
increase operations in Japan, the U.S. and Europe to tap demand
outside Vietnam, where growth is constrained, Ngoc said. FPT
will also simultaneously expand in developing countries such as
Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines, he said.

“It’s hard to get revenue growth of more than 10 percent a
year” from the domestic market, Ngoc said. “For growth in
revenue and profits, FPT has to go global. Our clear strategy
the coming year is globalization.”

Revenue in 2014 is projected to increase 8 percent to 30.9
trillion dong, the average of 6 analysts’ estimates compiled by
Bloomberg, slowing from the 13 percent growth in 2013.

FPT, which has more than 17,000 employees, targets to
increase group revenue by 11 percent and pretax profit by 6
percent in 2014, the CEO said. The aim is to boost sales by an
average 15 percent annually through 2016, Ngoc said.

Profit before tax increased 5 percent last year to 2.52
trillion dong, the company reported last week. Technology and
telecommunications accounted for 75 percent of profit, with
software exports climbing 24 percent, FPT said.

Track Record

FPT is looking to acquire a Singapore company that
specializes in software services such as inventory management,
order processing and employee payroll, said Duong Dung Trieu,
chief executive officer of FPT Information System Co., a unit
that contributes 25 percent of the parent’s pretax profit.

Getting into developed economies such as Singapore requires
FPT to acquire an established IT services provider, which has
expertise and a track record with clients, Ngoc said. The
company, which failed to clinch two deals last year, could
double its annual Singapore revenue to $12 million this year
through a potential acquisition, he said.

The company plans to make the acquisition in Singapore “as
soon as possible,” Ngoc said. Temasek holds less than 5 percent
stake in FPT as of end-2013, according to the Vietnamese
company.

FPT faces competition from outsourcing companies from India
such as Wipro Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., as well
as Hewlett-Packard Co. and International Business Machines
Corp., according to Lam Nguyen, a Ho Chi Minh City-based analyst
at International Data Corp.

“They will face very strong competition,” Nguyen said. In
emerging markets, FPT should be able to win deals as it
understands the issues of developing countries, he said. “Those
markets share the same type of growing pains and opportunities”
as Vietnam.